Dave Stewart Astro

Dave Stewart Astro Astro-photographer based in Kansas City, MO (Smithville Lake)

First new image I've done for quite some time.Using picture data I collected in late 2022 using a monochrome camera I wa...
01/27/2026

First new image I've done for quite some time.

Using picture data I collected in late 2022 using a monochrome camera I was able to combine light from 3 different filters that only let in the wavelengths of light produced from ionized hydrogen, oxygen and Sulphur.

Sulphur was used to make the reds, oxygen the blues and hydrogen the greens. Using those 3 primary colors you can create an image that's relatively pleasing to the eyes.

This is the Elephant’s Trunk Nebula (cataloged IC 1396A) and is a dense region of gas and dust that's located about 2400 light-years away in the constellation Cepheus. Shaped by stellar winds and ionized by radiation from a nearby massive star creating the light we see, this structure is a site of active star formation, with young, newly forming stars around 100,000 years old hidden within its clouds.

Taken from Smithville, MO by me using a ZWO 2600MM Pro camera and AT130EDT telescope.

Captured from our backyard this week is a relatively random section of the sky I chose. The bright star in this picture ...
10/05/2024

Captured from our backyard this week is a relatively random section of the sky I chose.

The bright star in this picture is a blue supergiant called Deneb that is located in the constellation of Cygnus. Surrounding this region is a wonderful example of different star clusters, reflection nebula (the kind that just reflect a stars light) and the red regions of emission nebula.

The red glowing of this region is caused from gasses being ionized from the nearby stars and star-forming regions.... Much like how a neon sign works. Ultra violet radiation "excites" and energizes hydrogen gas and strips it of an electron, as the energy dissipates the electrons recombine with hydrogen atoms and produces the photons we see as red light.

HIGH RESOLUTION VERSION. https://astrob.in/50968u/0/

Dave Stewart Astrophotography

Telescope: Redcat 51

Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC

Mount: ZWO AM5

203 300-second exposures over a little over 2 nights

Dave Stewart Astrophotography--Smithville, MO

Taken from our yard last weekend, my 2024 version of the ghost of Cassiopeia. At 550 light-years away in the constellat...
08/12/2024

Taken from our yard last weekend, my 2024 version of the ghost of Cassiopeia.

At 550 light-years away in the constellation of Cassiopeia lies the Ghost of Cassiopeia, a stunning and slightly eerie nebula. It is being shaped by radiation from a nearby variable brightness star, Gamma Cassiopeia (bright star to the right).

Gamma Cassiopeiae is a blue-white star that is 19 times more massive and 65,000 times brighter than our Sun. It also rotates at the incredible speed of 995,000 miles per hour — more than 200 times faster than our own sun.

Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC

Telescope: Redcat 51

Exposures: 134x300 seconds.

Taken one year ago today from Smithville, MO.The pillars of creation. It is an active star forming nursery 5,700 light y...
06/25/2024

Taken one year ago today from Smithville, MO.

The pillars of creation.

It is an active star forming nursery 5,700 light years away and found in our southern skies at night during the summer in Kansas city. The spires seen, known as the Pillars of Creation gives most people their first view of newly born stars and solar systems at the dawn of their creation.

The Pillars of Creation are immense, about 4 to 5 light-years tall.

This image is created using a monochrome camera using 24 5 minutes exposures of each hydrogen alpha, oxygen and Sulphur wavelengths of light stacked into 1 image and some slight artistic color calibration. Unfortunately I did not get good star colors as it became daylight before my RGB data was collected. But I like it anyway

----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Telescope: AT130EDT

Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro

Mount: ZWO am5

Guiding camera: ZWO ASI290MM mini

Filters: Antlia SHO 3nm

Integration: 300x27 each for each Sulphur, oxygen and hydrogen alpha filters

Haven't posted any of my pictures in a while. Took this on late November, the Tadpole nebula (IC 410)Located 12,000 ligh...
03/08/2024

Haven't posted any of my pictures in a while.

Took this on late November, the Tadpole nebula (IC 410)

Located 12,000 lightyears from Earth in the Auriga constellation. The nebula is a region of ionized hydrogen gas spanning over 100 lightyears across that's being carved and sculpted by streams of charged particles called stellar winds emanating from open star cluster NGC 1893 located within the nebula. The tadpoles you see in the top right are about 10 light-years long, absolutely massive to think about.

Full resolution link---- https://astrob.in/0fbjnw/0/

Pictured from Smithville, MO

Camera: ZWO asi2600mc

Telescope: Redcat 51

My latest galaxy photo from our backyard here in Smithville. This is from February that I have reprocessed for better c...
11/28/2023

My latest galaxy photo from our backyard here in Smithville. This is from February that I have reprocessed for better coloring and lighting.

The Andromeda Galaxy.

It's a spiral galaxy with diameter of about 152,000 light-years and approximately 2.5 million light-years from Earth and the nearest large galaxy to the Milky Way. The galaxy's name stems from the area of Earth's sky in which it appears, the constellation of Andromeda, which itself is named after the princess who was the wife of Perseus in Greek mythology.

The Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are expected to collide in around 4–5 billion years, merging to form a giant elliptical galaxy.

Took over the summer from Smithville. The Rosette Nebula is a massive nebula located about 5,200 light years away. Star...
11/02/2023

Took over the summer from Smithville.

The Rosette Nebula is a massive nebula located about 5,200 light years away. Star cluster listed as NGC 2244 appears in the middle and the young stars of the cluster were formed from the nebula’s material within the last 5 million years.

Stars in the middle cluster are also responsible for the nebula’s glow as their radiation ionizes the surrounding clouds, causing them to emit their own light, basically similar to how a neon sign works! The dark filaments of dust extending toward the middle of the nebula, sometimes called “elephant trunks,” are shaped by the stellar winds and radiation from hot young stars.

The Nebula spans about 130 light years across and will disperse in the next few million years, leaving behind only the central cluster of stars.

Picture I took early this month just in time for Halloween! The witchhead nebula is an extremely faint reflection nebula...
10/26/2023

Picture I took early this month just in time for Halloween!

The witchhead nebula is an extremely faint reflection nebula about 1,000 light-years from Earth. It is believed to be an ancient supernova remnant which is now illuminated by the nearby star Rigel in the constellation of Orion, Orions lower right star and also the brightest in the constellation. The bright blue is not only because the dust reflecting the stars bright blue light but also because the nature of the dust particles, reflecting blue light better than red, a great offset to what most nebula look like for imaging which is mostly reds from ionized hydrogen.

Side note!! See the bonus galaxies toward the top of the image.

HIGH RESOLUTION VERSION: https://astrob.in/dxbr9i/0/

Telescope: Redcat 51

Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC

148 separate 5-minute camera exposures stacked into 1 brighter image. This is the nebula cataloged as LBN 331, but I thi...
10/24/2023

148 separate 5-minute camera exposures stacked into 1 brighter image.

This is the nebula cataloged as LBN 331, but I think it looks like an octopus head 😁. The bright star as the octopuses "eye" is called 32 Cygni.

32 Cygni is a binary star system (32 Cygni A and B). The orbital plane of the two stars is nearly aligned with the line of sight to Earth which makes the 2nd star not visible here. This alignment from Earth's viewpoint becomes an eclipsing variable star system known as V1488 Cyg. This nebula lies in a dense star region of the Milky Way. 32 Cygni is estimated between 1,100 to 1,174 light years from Earth.

High resolution version. https://astrob.in/ts2pqx/0/

Taken over the last 3 nights in Smithville, MO.Barnard 150, also known as Seahorse Nebula, is a dark molecular cloud of ...
10/24/2023

Taken over the last 3 nights in Smithville, MO.

Barnard 150, also known as Seahorse Nebula, is a dark molecular cloud of dust in the Cepheus constellation. The dust is so thick that it absorbs all the light that comes from the stars behind it.

Also seen in the lower left is the fireworks galaxy (NGC 6946) Its distance from Earth is about 25.2 million light-years. It's called the Fireworks galaxy because 10 supernova have occurred since it's discovery in the late 1700s.

Just below the galaxy is star cluster NGC 6939.

FULL RESOLUTION VERSION: https://astrob.in/woi4qm/0/

Camera: ZWO asi2600mc

Telescope: William optics Redcat 51

Exposure time: 173x300 seconds

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Smithville, MO
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